MicroBoards Technology Orbit II manual CD, CD-R, and CD-RW Master Considerations

Orbit II Disc Copier Reference Manual – Revision K

Section 4: CD, CD-R, and CD-RW Master Considerations

A “master” is the CD, CD-R, or CD-RW disc you are making a duplicate of. There are ethical as well as functional considerations in the selection and use of masters. We at Microboards Technology discourage the unauthorized copying of proprietary material. Our copying systems will not defeat copy protection schemes. If you try to duplicate copy protected material, the Orbit II may either not read the master in, or may read the master in but produce copies that are not readable in a “target” system. If you have problems duplicating a CD or CD-R, one of the possibilities is the presence of copy protection. Try duplicating a master that does not have copy protection before assuming there is something wrong with your Orbit II Copy System.

There are a large number of formats included in the various “color books” that define CD technology. The simplest and most common forms are CD-Audio discs, that contain only music, and CD-ROM discs which contain only computer data. There are CD formats for specific games, Karaoke, video, graphics, and photographs. It is also possible to combine different formats on one CD or CD-R. Examples include CD- Audio albums with computer video, and CD-ROMs with audio and video tracks. Section 11.4 Reference Information – Specifications lists the formats supported by the Orbit II Stand Alone Disc Copier.

You may be generating your own masters, or providing a copy service using masters supplied by your customers. In either case you should be aware of the possibility that a master does not conform to all of the requirements of the appropriate format specification. There are many pre-mastering software packages that allow users to assemble their own CD-Rs. Most CD-R Writers sold as computer peripherals include some form of pre-mastering software. The most common problem we have seen is creating a master using the “back up” utility that comes with most CD-R Writers, instead of the “pre-mastering” utility. Back Ups are intended for one purpose only, to be restored by the same utility that created it. Back up utilities, and many file copy utilities, write small quantities of information called “packets” to the CD-R. This makes the CD-R act like a floppy diskette or hard disk drive. Packet written discs are not suitable for use as masters on your Orbit II Disc Copier. Your Orbit II will only duplicate masters that conform to all of the appropriate Color Book format requirements. Properly written CD-RW discs may be used as masters in Orbit II’s Reader or blanks in Orbit II’s Writer.

If you have problems reading in a master, the first thing you should do is read in a known good master. If your known good reference master reads in, the new master may have copy protection or format problems that the Orbit II will not tolerate. Try to redo, or ask your customer to redo, the master. Make sure all of the pre-mastering software instructions are understood and followed. If this does not solve your problem contact Microboards Technology Technical Services for assistance. We have equipment that can analyze any CD format and identify deviations from appropriate Color Book specification. Please note that there may be a charge for our CD analysis services.

Conscientious Disc Copier users implement a quality assurance program that typically includes the following steps. They follow this procedure before duplicating a large lot from a master they have not used previously.

1.Perform a virus scan on the master disc. (The Orbit II CD-to-CD Copier is virtually immune to viruses, but it could pass a virus through to the duplicates.)

2.Test the master disc on a target system:

•Listen to an Audio Disc

•Watch a Video CD

•Test a CD-ROM on an appropriate PC

•Verify the master disc’s content and version number

3.Make one duplicate of the master on the Orbit II

4.Using the Orbit II, compare the duplicate to the master disc.

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